As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
A computing system will typically include a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), which is the firmware code executed by the computing system when the computing system is first powered-up or rebooted. The BIOS may be stored in flash memory and initializes the computer system. One function of the BIOS is to identify the bootable devices of the computing system, prioritize them as source for booting the computing system, and sequentially target each device for booting the computer system. The methodology used by the computing system to perform the function of identifying the bootable devices of the computer system and prioritize them is included in the BIOS Boot Specification, which is a specification that was first established in 1996 by Compaq Computer Corporation; Phoenix Technologies, Ltd.; and Intel Corporation. Although the BIOS Boot Specification is still followed, it has some limitations, including limits on the number of supported devices, a limit on the flexible reordering of entries, an inability to designate absent devices as placeholders, and an inability to discriminate between variations in bootable devices.